Enlightened Vision of the Self

Author(s): Akalankadev, Devendra K Goyal
Publisher: Radiant Publishers New Delhi

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FOREWORD
problematic it is to define the value of the neighbour in terms of self-love. Ahimsa and compassion must be based on a relational, otherregarding philosophy, rather than a self-centred mysticism. Kotturan might respond by arguing that the distinction between the inner and the outer is an illusion, but this appears to contradict our ordinary experiences of the world. Kotturan would also counter that it is for the sake of an all-pervading Atman that we love our neighbour. But if Atman is the same for all the people- neither plural nor individualthen it cannot be an agent in the world as either a subject or object of love.92
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George Kotturan further contends that the concept of Absolute Brahman or "non-dualism makes love easy, because there is nothing easier than loving one's own self". Commenting on this assertion, Nicholas F. Gier observes:
The problem, however, is that, according to Shankar, we actually do not have a true self of our own. In his view love must amount to Brahman loving himself, but even this cannot be correct because, again, ultimate Brahman, nirguna Brahman, is totally devoid of qualities. The great moral exhortations of the Upanishads make no sense if non-dualism in this sense is true. To be self-controlled, to give to others, and to be compassionate (see Brihadaranyaka 5.2.3) are intelligible imperatives only if there are individual selves who have reciprocal relations with other beings. Upanishadic monism is shallow and empty of meaning if it is not interpreted to include the rich diversity of individual lives and situations. Upanishadic monism is better conceived as a panentheism that resacralizes the world rather than a transcendental monism that desacralizes it.93
Jainism does not believe in the theistic concepts of son (putrah) or father (pitah); the Self being the creation or part of some "Grand Self" (e.g. Brahman in the Advaita system) in which it merges or is assigned proximity or a special status on attaining liberation. Jainism believes in the plurality and separateness of souls which are all equal and wholes, not portions or parts of any unitary principle. In Jainism, atman is Parametman (appa so paramappa).94 After atman, which is the